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The rise of mobile continues! Google has been slowly moving toward a mobile-first index for quite some time and they officially announced it on November 4th, 2016. It’s currently being tested and it is anticipated to fully roll-out in the next couple of months.

What exactly does Google’s mobile-first indexing mean?

In short, Google will crawl and index the mobile version of your site as its primary source for content and ranking signals for your site.

Google stated: “To make our results more useful, we’ve begun experiments to make our index mobile-first. Although our search index will continue to be a single index of websites and apps, our algorithms will eventually primarily use the mobile version of a site’s content to rank pages from that site, to understand structured data, and to show snippets from those pages in our results. Of course, while our index will be built from mobile documents, we’re going to continue to build a great search experience for all users, whether they come from mobile or desktop devices.”

Mobile is even MORE important now.

More people than ever are living their lives on multiple screens. In fact, internet usage on mobile and tablet devices has…

Calm down, the little blue bird is still tweeting, but it’s clear they’re not doing so hot. The company shut down Vine, their once very popular six-second looping video app, let go of a good chunk of employees and as they’re hoping to find a buyer, shares are plummeting.

In the meantime, they’re putting their efforts into live streaming. Could this be how Twitter saves themselves?

Well they do have Periscope and certainly are headed in the right direction with live streaming. Facebook and Instagram, which was acquired by Facebook in 2012, are constantly optimizing this offering with talk of launching a “Go Insta” live streaming option, plus building out more live streaming tools on Facebook.

If Twitter is able to convince users (and even more so, brand partners) to use and invest in their live streaming offering, perhaps there’s a chance. Given all folks need is a smartphone to broadcast to the world (no editing needed), there’s going to continue to be growth in this space.

And what will users be looking for?

Facebook thinks it’ll be a more controlled, customizable live stream, which is why they…

I thought I was done writing about bot traffic from an ad campaign but turns out I was wrong. We recently ran a targeted display advertising campaign and 82% of the campaign’s traffic was from a bot. Here’s how we determined fraudulent traffic from the campaign.

Screen Recordings

We utilized HotJar to capture mouse movements and we noticed erratic and unnatural movements on the screen recordings. This seemed odd so we dug some more…

Intervals of Scroll and Mouse Movements

In looking at about 50 on these recordings, the movement of the mouse seems to be very algorithmic and happens consistently at 5, 10, 15, 20 seconds etc. on multiple videos. Not very natural…

Similar Session Durations

There was some variation in session duration, but for the most part all of these fall within the same time frame – not very human-like, and then you look at the mouse movements and the intervals of when the movement/scroll occurs.

Same Browser Version

4,248 of our display visits came from Chrome version 48.0.2564.109. Version 48 of Chrome was only around February – April and Chrome…

Let’s face it, not everyone is itching to talk about the latest ventures in health care, but that’s changing in 2016. As the industry itself expands, out-of-the-box approaches have as well, breaking many traditional molds in health communications. With big changes come big ideas – and health care marketers have delivered in 2016 – producing brilliant campaigns, products and technology. Below are just a few examples of how the industry is owning 2016.

1. CVS’s product innovation: Keurig lovers meet medicine pods

You read that right; just in time for all of you seasonal allergy sufferers, salvation has arrived. Most coffee lovers already think of their Keurig as a life saver, but this relationship is about to be taken to the next level. In late August, CVS released daytime and nighttime flu medicine pods that are compatible with Keurig, ultimately injecting the soothing powers of flu medicine into a warm, cozy drink.

“It’s not funny unless it moves” – a close friend who uses more GIFs via message than actual words told me yesterday.

Now I’m not sure if that statement is 100% true as there are plenty of amazing static images, but he had a point. Shortly after I was at a GIPHY sponsored art exhibit in Soho and taken aback by the sheer number of GIFs projected onto walls and the attendees completely immersed in the experience. I guess I had always seen GIFs more on mobile or desktop, so the sheer scale was impressive.

With the release of the newest iOS, if every iPhone user wasn’t already using GIFs, they’re about to. GIPHY keyboards were popular, so this new update isn’t groundbreaking, but it will create behavior among a new audience – perhaps a slightly older one. Just waiting for my mom to send me a GIF.

So what should you know about GIFs? For starters, the pronunciation. GIPHY put the debate to rest at this year’s Social Media Week. It’s not “Jif” like the peanut butter, it’s GIF, like how you’d say…

Back-to-school means another year of fresh books, backpacks and binders. But in 2016, purchasing each of these items is far from basic. With the evolution of digital media casting a halo on our everyday lives, it’s no surprise that parents are spending more and more using their mobile devices when it comes to back-to-school shopping. Brands are very intuitively using those mobile screens as another money-making method to feed into consumers’ habits. So, just as seasons change, trends do too. There are brands that are evolving from typical marketing methods by tapping into digital apps or social media to target parents in an insightful way with back-to-school incentives and tips, which not only boosts sales but leaves parents, and of course their kids, satisfied.

Back-to-school preparation may be perceived as a monumental event. And with each year that passes, it just keeps getting bigger. According to AdWeek and eMarketer, back-to-school sales in the U.S. are expected to increase 2.6 percent this year, which means sales for the season may total around $828.8 billion. A separate study reported by Adweek and released by GfK and Facebook IQ, notes that more than 60 percent of adults in a recent survey

Having strong search rankings requires thorough planning, strategy and flawless execution. Google looks at over 200 factors when ranking content and the markup, site structure, user experience and content of a website all play a role in how a particular website ranks in search.

When looking at SEO for organizations with multiple locations this can become infinitely more complicated from a technology and optimization standpoint. However, when planning out how to ensure locations rank in search there are a few major areas to consider.

What Exactly is Local SEO?

Local Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing a website to garner results in Google’s Local Results

Google will return “local results” when a geographic location is added to a search

For instance: “home improvement Richmond Va” will return local results because this search is aimed at finding something within a specific geographic area

With the Olympics over, the internet is “lit” with nostalgia: the good, the bad, and the Lochte. Back in April, Rio was projected to be the most social Olympics ever, with 18% of Millennials saying they would discuss the Games on Snapchat. The results are in, and nearly 50 million people watched Olympics coverage on that platform alone. Beyond the substantial social conversation, Rio offered many takeaways applicable to any social marketing campaign. Read on for strategic do’s and don’ts gleaned from the Summer Games.

DO

Explore new avenues for reaching new audiences. In an effort to connect with a younger audience, NBC struck a deal with Snapchat – the reigning social network among teens today – making the app NBC’s only U.S. partner allowed to distribute official Olympics content. The partnership included a popup Snapchat Discover channel and Snapchat-curated live stories covering many aspects of the various Olympic events.

Foster connections between your subject and your audience. It’s no secret that humans love human interest stories. The storytelling aspect of the Olympics will always play a major role in sought-after coverage – it humanizes these…

Digital channels are bursting with content. And while a consumer brand can stand out using funny Snapchat influencers or easy-to-consume short videos, B2B audiences are looking for more. An instigator of a purchase needs information that shows how the solution will improve their quality of work, the efficiency of their process, etc.

They also need information that proves value to every stakeholder who checks off the purchase and will evaluate the instigator on its success. It’s especially true for B2B technology companies. The person who begins the purchase process could have a dozen stakeholders with different specialties and interests.

The growth of content marketing has largely been thanks to the need for so much information in making business decisions. But often customers are given a blog or article that reads like a product page. They’re left to interpret the reason to buy.

A B2B company’s audience needs more valuable information before committing to a product or service. So to help them see the value and show it to others, content marketing can be there to provide useful, supported content that’s relevant to the audience and drives towards some definable goal.

With over 40 million Twitter followers, we know the guy is doing something right. Jimmy Fallon’s robust, multi-platform social media presence can be summed up in a three-pronged approach to social media strategy. The following tactics are key for brands aiming to thrive in the social realm.

1. Tailor content to each platform

The majority of Fallon’s Facebook and Twitter posts consist of the latest show content packaged into shareable video clips and GIFs – a tactical move considering most platform algorithms favor visuals, yielding much higher user engagement than content that does not include visual elements.

The Tonight Show’s Instagram account documents backstage and onstage moments with Fallon’s guests in addition to GIFs of the latest show content. The show has additional social presence on Snapchat, where staff pose challenges that encourage fans to send snaps back for a chance to be featured. Fallon’s celebrity guests also participate in Snapchat ‘takeovers’ as a tease to the show that night. This informal and uncut, behind-the-scenes content is exactly what Snapchat users expect to see from celebrities and organizations on Snapchat. No one platform is the same. Followers expect to see different kinds of content